Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other ruling party leaders are shocked by the newly bold opposition in India, which wants to use its larger presence in parliament to challenge the Bharatiya Janata Party on multiple fronts, a senior opposition leader said.
Shashi Tharoor, a senior member of the Indian National Congress and a 15-year veteran of the lower house of parliament, the Lok Sabha, said BJP leaders appeared “shocked” by a fiery parliamentary speech this week by opposition leader Rahul Gandhi. He said the speech signaled the presence of a more powerful opposition in India for the first time since Modi seized power a decade ago.
“They are not used to it. They have to get used to it,” Tharoor said of the BJP during an interview in New Delhi on Wednesday. “We have seen the government’s response in Mr. Modi’s speech, so you know where the battle lines have been drawn.”
